"We want to apologize in advance for this statement," the writer warns. "The uglier and fatter the moms, the easier it will be for you to get into that family."

(Forensic computer analyst Brian Mize notes that pedophiles increasingly are connecting with their young prey via interest-specific websites, such as a youth soccer team's home page. Sometimes, Mize says, predators adjust their Facebook profiles to match the interests of the kid they're targeting. The near-ubiquity of smartphones facilitates communication out of range of parents' prying eyes and ensures that video capability is a mere touchscreen away.)

FBI investigators say Jeffrey Greenwell relied on a consistent method to seduce boys: In nearly every instance, he sought out single mothers on online dating websites. He would romance a woman and spoil her son, lavishing the boy with attention and gifts. After a time he'd move the relationship to a more intimate level, taking the boy on trips to Six Flags or babysitting him and, finally, sexually molesting him.

On October 23, 2009, federal and state authorities arrested Jeffrey Greenwell just outside his home in Miramiguoa Park and detained him at the Franklin County Jail.

Jon Gitchoff

The Miramiguoa Park home where Greenwell lived prior to his arrest.

Details

"You're talking about the best predators ever," the federal agent from St. Louis says. "Greenwell was very smooth-talking. He dressed normally. He wooed the heck out of the mothers. This wasn't 'the guy in the ice cream truck.'"

The agent points to a flow chart the investigators created to diagram Greenwell's various connections to molestation victims and their parents, as well as two suspected fellow pedophiles. He gestures to photos of four mothers and ticks off Greenwell's tie to each: "boyfriend, boyfriend, babysitter, coworker."

Subke and his partner from the FBI questioned their quarry at the sheriff's office on the evening of his arrest.

Subke began by offering Greenwell, 37 years old at the time, a soda. After reading him his rights, the investigators explained that there had been some allegations made against him. At first the conversation skewed toward small talk. A Riverfront Times request for a transcript of the interrogation under the federal Freedom of Information Act was denied by the Records Management Division in Winchester, Virginia, because the investigation into Lost Boy is ongoing. But Subke and the St. Louis-based federal agent consented to describe the interview.

"Mr. Greenwell, what kinds of hobbies are you into?" asked the detectives.

Scooby Doo, SpongeBob and playing Xbox, the suspect replied.

"What's your type, Mr. Greenwell? Guys or girls?"

Guys, the man answered. Young males, specifically — around eight to twelve years old. "But I don't like hardcore sex images," he asserted. "Society doesn't look too kindly upon adult males who like young boys."

"They're boring," the suspect replied. His computer skills, he added in response to another question, were "beginner to low-intermediate." He said he had encrypted the contents of his hard drive "because of personal information."

The FBI agent asked about a framed photo of a boy he'd seen on a wall in Greenwell's home: It appeared to be a formal school portrait. Greenwell explained that it was an old photo of a boy he'd been a father figure to.

After a while the investigators brought up the fourth grader who had described how Greenwell had sexually molested him. Eventually Greenwell admitted that he had fondled the boy's penis and photographed the experience.

But Greenwell didn't stop there.

Mindful of Greenwell's penchant for Scooby-Doo merchandise, the interrogators broached the topic in the hope that he might be familiar with the "Scooby-Doo Productions" material that LA investigators had turned up on Lost Boy. But instead of referencing those videos, Greenwell described a pornographic video a friend had sent to him — and also a non-pornographic video he had made, which featured the son of a coworker playing in a park.

"We didn't know what the hell he was talking about," says the FBI agent. "So we played off of it."

"Yeah, tell us about those other videos," the agent prompted.

At that Greenwell abruptly opened up.

He admitted incorporating Scooby-Doo imagery into the home movie he'd shot in the park, featuring a boy he knew. He began spouting "computer lingo," as the agent puts it — saying he'd used the Sony Vegas software to tag three other videos with his "Scooby-Doo Productions" imprimatur. He hadn't shot those videos, he said; they'd been sent to him by acquaintances. He said he'd blurred background details so as not to reveal where the videos had been shot.

"Everyone knew him as 'the computer guy,'" the federal agent notes in retrospect. "If there was something in the background that identified someone, he would take care of it."

The detectives asked Greenwell who'd sent him the videos. One man was from New Hampshire, he said; another, who went by the screen name "SpongeBob," was from Utah.

He admitted that the framed photo on his wall was of a boy he'd molested, and he told Subke and the agent where the boy's mother lived. He admitted he was "Muddyfeet." He admitted to operating a child-porn message board of his own, called "aLL bois." He identified by name all of the boys in photos that had been sent from Los Angeles. He coughed up the screen names of ten additional fellow porn traders.

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The offender's lawyer wants the original sentence reviewed saying it's:

'unreasonable and excessive in light of Greenwell's background and the nature of his offenses'

Never should the words 'nature of his offenses' be uttered to invalidate a long sentence for a childrapist. I think it's about time society agreed that child molestation of any sort is to be ranked one of the most evil crimes and punishable as such. I know it's the lawyer's job, and everyone needs to be defended in a properly free society, but those words make it seem like the childrapist hasn't done very much wrong. He preyed on children, for goodness sake, how can that not be one of the worst possible things anyone can do.

This is just sick.. and to think that I worked with this sick f*** for months..... I have two kids now and I would pesonally kill someone for this... They may think that a 100 yr prison sentence is justice enough, but there is no amount of time in prison that is justice enough for these poor children that will have to deal with this the rest of their lives... He deserves to die a painful death... To know that I stood next to this man and had multiple conversations with him, makes me sick.. I made it all the way through this article, but I am just sick to my stomach from reading the amount of detail that is in this article.

"Oh lets just throw him in jail" I say waterboard him and find out everything he did! Scum like this is an unfortunate burden on our society.Sure he was molested but he chose to spread the grief no pity should be taken upon him! God only knows what else he did. That area is know for missing children and for him to write a handbook he knows more than he is letting on! For serial pedos like this they don't say everything! Heck I'll volunteer to get it out of him! Just like Sandusky lets pity the monster I say NO find out everything he knows and take no mercy!

You people just don't get it do you? He is in prison. He can not see anything you guys are posting. So what kind of satisfaction do you hope to gain from posting these awful things? Do you have a reason to be upset? Yes. Do you have a reason to wish pain and death upon another person? Absolutely not. I am here to tell you that reading an upsetting article, then posting something as vile as this, does NOT make you a good person. In fact, it lets the world see your true colors. You're not okay with child pornography, but you ARE okay with vengeful murder? In that case, you have no room to be leaving comments here.